Master of Arts in Public Spheres

Master of Arts in Public Spheres under the HES-SO University of Applied Arts and Sciences address to artists and other practitioners of the art scene who wish to start or continue exploring the relationship between art and the public sphere in its environmental, mediatic, political and cultural dimensions.

This postgraduate degree offers a practical and theoretical platform to bring into question the context of artistic production as well as the criticality of site-specificity. It explores the circumstances of an artwork display and how it relates to the urban or rural space of artistic intervention. The location in the heart of the Alps, rich in industrial history and surrounded by nature, enables the on-field investigation of environmental art and of the dialectics between centre and periphery.
The MAPS offers an intensive 2-year training program distributed over 3 days of teaching per week. Faculty members are international professionals from various disciplines. The seminars and workshops, presented by artists, theoreticians, and curators, include visiting exhibitions and cultural events, as well as developing personal or collective exhibition projects.
About two third of the training is devoted to personal projects carried out with the supervision of tutors. The second year focusses on a final dissertation and exhibition. Students have access to studio space and to all the infrastructures made available by the school.
The language of instruction is English.